Mission assurance is an important component of any product development. It is the process that ensures that the content of a product, which can include product quantity, quality and performance, is sufficient to meet customer, manufacturer, and/or supplier needs through out the product's life cycle (i.e., inception to disposal). Mission assurance is generally about doing it right the first time, and the end result of a product that is sought under a mission assurance program is the right product, the first time, at the best value for the customer, the manufacturer, and/or supplier.
Mission assurance methods differ depending on the involvement of individuals and organizations. However, these methods typically follow a general pattern. The general pattern most often involves assessment of product content by independent reviewers using one or more assessment criteria defined as a function of the content under review and the ability and experience of the independent reviewers.
There are many different reviews that focus on different aspects of product content; as such there are also many different independent review teams or groups. The reviews are temporally spaced and aperiodic in nature and result in a further diversity of review team membership. Diversity in review team membership and assessment criteria is typically viewed as a positive characteristic, as the diversity produces a multiplicity of views with respect to content. Integration of these independent reviews produces an overall picture of product content as a function of time.
While existing mission assurance methods are beneficial to product development, the current focus is limited to producing the right product with limited attention focused on the first time or best value aspects. Existing mission assurance programs fail to provide a method that can track and correct non-optimal maturation of product content in near real time. The current methods of Mission Assurance can not effectively address these issues due to the low sample rate and less than consistent evaluation techniques.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide methods for assuring content of a product that address the limitations as expressly or impliedly set forth and other limitations not expressly or impliedly set forth in this background or subsequent detailed description. In addition, it is desirable to provide an apparatus or program product that address the limitations as expressly or impliedly set forth and other limitations not expressly or impliedly set forth in this background or subsequent detailed description. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.